Jews in Kyiv celebrate Sukkot by candlelight as missiles fall nearby
No members of the community injured, says rabbi; Israeli diplomats remain in Warsaw as attacks pick up again in Ukrainian capital
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
On Monday morning, Russian forces fired dozens of missiles into Ukraine, targeting cities and infrastructure in response to an explosion on a key bridge to Russian-controlled Crimea over the weekend.
Some of the projectiles struck the heart of Kyiv, killing several civilians and driving residents into shelters.
As the first wave of missiles slammed into the capital, Kyiv’s Jewish residents were preparing for morning prayers on the first day of the Sukkot holiday.
“It’s calm right now,” Kyiv’s Brodsky Synagogue Chief Rabbi Moshe Azman told The Times of Israel on Thursday, “but on Monday it was anything but calm.”
Two missiles struck a few hundred meters from the synagogue, including one near the hotel where Israel’s embassy staff stays when they are in the country.
“It was 8 a.m., it woke us up,” Azan recounted. “There were massive explosions. I’ve been near explosions of Grads and Qassam rockets in Gaza, this was something much bigger.”
Despite the attack, more than 100 worshipers showed up for prayers, which were held in the underground dining room instead of the main sanctuary.
“Maybe people think the synagogue is the safest place,” Azman said.
Many of the Russian missiles were aimed at electricity plants, causing blackouts in Ukraine’s major cities. Nighttime Sukkot prayers were conducted by candlelight.
No members of the Jewish community were injured, as far as Azman knows, but a Jewish man was in his apartment when the roof of his building was hit by a projectile.
The community in the Jewish village of Anatevka — founded by Azman near Kyiv in 2015 to house Jewish refugees from the fighting in Donbas — did not experience any near-misses, and celebrated the holiday without interruption.
Azman is spending much of the intermediate days of the holiday visiting military hospitals in the capital to deliver air conditioners and medical supplies that were donated by the Jewish community.
Israel’s embassy staff were all in Warsaw during the attacks. Ambassador Michael Brodsky is in Israel on a planned vacation for the holiday.
Local embassy workers were in Kyiv, but none were injured.
The Kyiv branch of the Israeli cafe chain Aroma was damaged, however.
The ambassador and diplomatic staff were slated to return to Kyiv next week to temporarily reopen the embassy, but that timeline is under review after the missile attacks.
Ukraine is reeling from the attacks that have left scores dead and wounded, as well as villages and towns without power and hot water across the country.
On Thursday morning, Ukraine’s capital region was struck by Iranian-made kamikaze drones, sending rescue workers rushing to the scene as residents awoke to air raid sirens for the fourth morning in a row.
The Israeli Aroma Espresso Bar in #Kyiv was damaged yesterday, as a result of the Russian missile attacks against the Ukrainian capital. pic.twitter.com/yJ8dYlTT6p
— Michael Brodsky (@michael_brodsk) October 11, 2022
The strikes came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was using Iranian Shahed drones to target civilians and Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
A senior Ukrainian official said Israel is providing Ukraine with “basic intelligence” on Iranian suicide drones being deployed by the Russian army, according to a report in The New York Times.
Wednesday’s report, which cited an anonymous Ukrainian source, also said that a private Israeli security firm was giving the Ukrainians satellite imagery of Russian military positions.
Thursday’s strikes came a day after Ukraine said it had reclaimed more territory in the south and welcomed a Western pledge to deliver air defense systems to Kyiv “as fast as we can.”
A US-led group of around 50 countries held talks at the NATO headquarters in Brussels and vowed to deliver new anti-missile systems to Kyiv.
Agencies contributed to this report.
